The six-man Kiowa scouting party
came down on the Manning ranch like a wolf on the fold.
Roy Manning and his younger
brother, Hal, had been about to go looking for a couple of strays. They’d just
ridden out of the barn when Hal got an arrow through the throat. He made a
gurgling sound and clutched his neck
with both hands. Blood spurted between his fingers, and his horse broke into a
run, throwing Hal’s body off about twenty yards away.
A ball from an 1866 Henry Yellow
Boy blew a hole in Roy’s heart, and he pitched from the saddle, dead before he
hit the dirt.
Two of the Kiowa warriors jumped
from their horses and drew their knives. One cut away Roy’s scalp while the
other was busy stripping Hal to remove his genitals.
The other four warriors had
already stormed into the house, where Sue Manning was trying to hide her son
and two young daughters. A warrior knocked her to the floor with one blow,
while the other three dealt with the screaming children. All the surviving Mannings
were dragged outside.
They killed the boy first, then
held Sue while they raped her daughters. She’d fainted long before they got to
her.
When the warriors rode away from
the ranch, no one was left alive. And in that, they were lucky. The scouting
party, steeped in blood, headed northeast, toward the road where the stage from
Wichita would be heading for Wolf Creek.
This Sample is from the opening chapter by Bill Crider. Crider is a native Texan and former college teacher and administrator living
in scenic Alvin, Texas, near enough to the Texas Gulf Coast to have been
through two hurricanes. He has written around seventy-five novels in various
genres, including both standalone westerns under his own name and series western
novels under various house names. His mystery novels featuring Sheriff Dan
Rhodes have been appearing just about every year since 1986. He has been
nominated for the Edgar Award and the Shamus Award for his novels, and He won
the Anthony and Derringer Awards for his short crime fiction. His wife, Judy, is
his proofreader and constant inspiration. They make a great partnership. If you want to learn more about them, check out Bill's website at www.billcrider.com or follow his blog at http://billcrider.blogspot.com.
